Broken Frontier

Cassie Hack has a reputation as a killer of those undead, half-dead, supernatural, and almost-supernatural slasher killers. So what would cause her to team up with Chucky?!

Writer Tim Seeley has been poking fun at serial killer/slasher horror movies, while at the same time paying loving homage, for years with his Hack/Slash mini-series. For the first time, though, his vengeful goth girl Cassie Hack faces off with one of the big names in the horror movie world – the deranged doll Chucky from the Child’s Play/Chucky movie series. It’s a horror movie fan’s crossover dream. Or is it?

Laura Lochs, an insane killer that Cassie thought finished has once again started preying on teenagers, this time in New Orleans. The whole thing proves to be a trap, though, to lure in Cassie and her hulking partner Vlad so that Laura could possess Vlad’s body, leaving his soul trapped in her own battered body! In order to perform this feat, though, Laura had to steal a certain voodoo amulet from a certain homicidal doll. Now Cassie needs Chucky to cast the spell that will put Vlad back in his body and Chucky needs Cassie to help him get back the amulet that keeps allowing him to be reborn. When enemies become allies it is certain that blood will flow... the only question is whose blood will it be?

Seeley manages to both homage and spoof not only horror movies here but also traditional comic book crossovers/team-ups. The usual conventions of fights, rescues, and reluctant team-ups are given a bit of a twist here though due to the homicidal nature of the protagonists. The story does manage to be fairly new reader friendly as well but the problem is that the basic tale remains fairly middle-of-the-road. While there are some occasional bits of sharp dialogue and some sequences that are dead-on target satire, the rest of the story resembles cotton candy – pretty, colorful, kind of tasty, but non-filling. Many of the characters come across as mere plot devices – even the main villain of Laura Lochs seems little more than a thin facade and Chucky is simply Chucky. A sense of creepiness or eeriness is also missing, which lends the villains’ actions surprisingly horror-less despite the gore.

Speaking of gore, artist Matt Merhoff does a good job with the more violent aspects of this comic. In addition to the death, though, he also proves a deft hand with the fight action sequences, character body language, and facial expressions. His characters are attractive and gruesome by turns but always interesting to the eyes.

If you are looking for a kind of horror movie popcorn comic with a breezy attitude and a smidge of satire then Hack/Slash vs. Chucky might just be worth your money. If, however, you are a flesh-eating zombie looking for something with a bit more meat on its bones then there are probably other directions to look towards.